The voices that help to manage EdCamp inspires collaboration and professional
development on a foundational level for educational professionals. To inspire and
engage teachers as professionals, embrace the humanity that is in each teacher,
to aspire and guide students beyond their perceived limitations of themselves and
of what others perceive them to have.
Sharing the dynamics of Professional Learning Communities, building and using
Professional Learning Networks and enhancing the importance of each because
it takes a village family to help raise and develop children; this is the Professional
Learning Family.
Professional Learning Families where educators look beyond the profession to
see the value of a family structure in education. Each classroom, each school and
each community is a culture that must be managed to guide students and even
families step by step in the educational process. A holistic approach to learning
that inspires and even agitates teachers to do better.

Takeaways from 2017 EdCamp Leadership that had 8 counties represented.
a. Every behavior a student shows in not a consequence for discipline. Look
beyond the behavior to find the reason and situation for the actions.
b. Preserve your academic learning environment. Set the atmosphere for
respect, high expectations and building bridges for success and relationships.
c. Start using parents as a resource to help manage classroom management.
Always have something nice to say about all your students because they
deserve to feel safe and wanted in the classroom and school.
d. The importance of relevancy and the connection that all learning is important.
Learning is a life-long endeavor that should be taught along with why learning
is valuable.
e. Administration should be listening to the classroom teachers about how to
improve the school environment. Teachers should also feel valued and needed
for their passion, experience, intelligence, sacrifice and humanity as people
not robots or programs.
f. If teachers have something that works in the classroom they should be
encouraged to share it.
g. The environment of the school should support high levels of confidence in
every teacher and moral should be maintained at every opportunity. Every
person from teacher, custodian, office personnel, lunch room, etc should
feel valued and needed.
h. Teachers should be authentic and transparent, never be fake, rude or
sarcastic to students, parents or peer professionals.
i. Teachers should share what does not work and remember every lesson
is not for every student.
j. Consistency sends a message to students that they can trust you and
rely on you to be the same person all the time. Don’t go and get
“new” on them.
k. Teachers should communicate with parents consistently and invite
them into the classroom to watch and participate in learning.
l. Technology can bridge the gap between single parents, grandparents and
teachers if applied correctly
m. Teachers don’t assume your children’s parents are of the same educational
level. Just because your students’ parents speak Spanish do not assume
they can read Spanish. Just because your students’ parents or family are
professional and college educated they are providing
all the emotional and cognitive needs of their children.
n. Teachers take the time to read and comprehend your student’s academic
folders, drive their neighborhoods and look in the grocery stores in the
community to see their environment.
o. Before a teacher can teach they must build a relationship with their students.
p. Teachers must share their educational, social and behavior expectations
for their classroom and the school.
q. Teachers are responsible for building their classroom culture and the
administration is responsible for the school culture. They must work in unison
and collaboration.
r. Teachers should let their students know their stories are important and
all learning should be purposeful.
s. Teachers should let their students know that they embrace and
respect diversity.
t. Teachers should take a stand on student learning not just related
to assessments.

Teachers should have a homework assignment for their parents in the form
of a written assignment. Beginning the new school year ask your parents
to write in 1000 words or less what do they want
you to know as their child’s teacher to learn about their child.
“Open the doors for information exchanges early with parents.”
Comment shared at EdCamp Leadership, “students that are loved at home
come to school to be taught, and students that are not loved at home come
to school to be loved.”

May 3, 2017

Redefining of African American Education Through STEAMby William Jackson STEAM and STEM Advocate
#MyQuestToTeach
In collaboration with Jax Markerspace panelists:
Shawanna Brooks, Akia Uwanda, Latonja Richardson,
Princess S. Rashid, and Angie NixonEducation in STEAM requires a holistic approach to teaching children
and families of color and culture the value of STEM and the incorpor-
ation of the Arts. STEM / STEAM panel discussion at the Jacksonville
Public Library – Jax Markerspace held a dynamic panel discussion
of women who are actively engaged in the field of STEAM as entrepr-
eneurs, business leaders, parents and advocates of STEAM through
their personal talents and skills.
Many parents still do not understand the letters and the connection
to their children’s education. Science Technology Engineering Arts
Mathematics, an educational initiative to prepare students for 21st
century careers not just jobs.
The Arts is an important element in promoting STEAM and the
engagement of young people from elementary age or younger to
high school students. “The biggest danger of unemployment today
is not of immigration it is the advancements of technology in robotics,”
Princess S. Rashid which is causing unemployment faster than any
immigrant attempting to cross the borders of this nation to find
employment to support their families.
The distinguished panel including the hostess for Jax Markerspace
at the Downtown Jacksonville Public Library Shawanna Brooks,
musical artist and entrepreneur Akia Uwanda, parent and advocate
for STEM, STEAM and STREAM. Latonja Richardson and her
daughter Taylor who aspires to be an astronaut traveling to Mars.
Princess S. Rashid, Physicist, Artist and Thought Leader, and Angie
Nixon author, literary visionary and entrepreneur of The Adventures
of Moxie Girl with her daughter Natalie and community activist.
Putting STEAM into STEM was a dynamic discussion about the
power of change in education, economics, commerce and even
political power because of the changes that lead to national and
global influences in the changes of careers and thought leadership.
The 20th and 21st century is going through dynamic change because
of the integration of digital technologies. This unique discussion
provided women of diverse walks of life and goals to come together
in solidarity that communities especially African American, Hispanic
and other people of color need to be engaged in involving their
children in hands on learning with higher order and critical thinking.
Paraphrasing Angie Nixon and Latonjay Richardson, the holistic
approach comes to play that children will not change if they continue
to be limited by their environments. If the environment does not
change neither will the desire to change educationally and if there
is no change educationally there may be no change economically.
Princess S. Rashid commented that Black children must learn to
like math and the empowerment it can provide as seen from her
video below.
There is no way around it, math can open doors and provide
access to new careers. Jacksonville Public Library Shawanna
Brooks shared that the resources of the library are free to
everyone and parents need to have their children here to
learn about the global implications of education and business.
The panelists were in agreement that the thinking of students
will not change if parental thinking does not change, thus the
holistic thinking of family and community. Parents set the tone
and in many cases the direction of educational and career
decisions. In attendance was Mark McCombs, “I teach people
how to build robots and to do what they used to think was
impossible.” Mark McCombs FIRST LEGO League that creates
dynamic opportunities for team building, engineering, building
and coding of robotics that are involved in competitions.
This is another key area of STEM and STEAM student can be
involved in, but must get their schools engaged.
Children are conditioned by their environment, if they do not
see change or the conditions for change their thinking will
remain the same, their desire to change their lives will not be
inspired.
The panel discussion brought a new direction to potentially
changing how children should be taught. Being active, engaged,
and hands on brings faster growth than traditional lecture
instruction. Children in schools today are not like the children
of the 40’s through 80’s, they are more active and require
increased visual, auditory and active stimulation. Because
of this change education needs to be modified as well. When
listening to the discussions there is a urgency and a sense
of priority in the realization of the influence of technology and
it’s generational influences.
These ladies of influence, knowledge, social conscious, civic
duty and even a moral directional conscious want every child
to be successful because it “takes a village,” as Latonya
Richardson shares to the audience, to raise the leaders,
workers, innovators and creators of the present and the future.
Putting STEAM into STEM provides an opportunity to share the
potential to move children from being consumers of technology
to creators, innovators, visionaries and models for future
generations.

When You Educate Women You Educate Generationsby William Jackson, #MyQuestToTeach
STEM and STEAM Advocate

The goal of education is not to just educate that specific
person, it is a goal to educate generations that come
afterwards. Establishing education as a foundation to
achieve success can be seen when families continue to
send their children to higher educational institutions,
vocational school and even military service to work
towards a level of degree in the service of their country.

The past decade has seen an increase in careers that
require technical skill, certificates and diplomas. At the
forefront are women that see these as stable careers
to raise a family and have access to the benefits
that they may not have had from their parents. Families
of color are beginning to encourage their children to
think out of the cultural box and aim for the stars,
the seas and medical professions that explore
the inner spaces of the human bodies.

STEM, STEAM, STREAM are seen as the gateways
to achieving the American Dream and dreams that
are deferred because of social-economic situations.
The increase in mentoring groups is exposing
girls and young women to careers not thought
of that require higher order thinking, problem
solving, critical thinking, thought leadership,
creativity and out of the box developmental
abilities that foresee future challenges that
may threaten humanity on local, national
or international levels.

When you educate a mother your educating a generation
because mothers will continue to open the minds of her
children and her children’s children. Fathers provide
the support systems and help build foundations. The
recent Markerspace presentation at the Jacksonville
Public Library “STEAM INTO STEM” brought together
women in Jacksonville, Florida that show the diversity
of parenting, careers, business applications, educational
levels and entrepreneurialism.

Jax Markerspace panelists:
Shawanna Brooks, the hostesses, Akia Uwanda, Latonja Richardson,
Princess S. Rashid, and Angie Nixon. Each woman involved in
Jacksonville as community activist, business leaders and have
children in the schools systems of Jacksonville either public
or private.
The aspirations are the same for academic success, the goal of
graduating their children from high school and attending higher
education is similar, but the roads to achievements are
diverse and different. Each women are successful in their own
ways, are unified in their goals for their children to be better
educated and have better access to the resources that are open
in today with the integration and implementation of technologies
that involve STEAM INTO STEM.

Trans-formative statements: “The biggest danger of unemployment
today is not of immigration it is the advancements of technology
in robotics,” made by Princess S. Rashid a Physicist, educator,
parent and Artist. This shows that science can embrace the Arts,
there is coexistence. The blending of STEAM and building a
relationship with careers comes into place when Angie Nixon
and Latonjay Richardson comment that the holistic approach
to education comes to play that children will not change if they
continue to be limited by their environments. The value of
exposure and relevance is real when education is applied to
careers and the changing of the mental and relevancy of what
is learned when applied in real life.

The FIRST LEGO LEAGUE, is the dream of Mark McCombs,
“I teach people how to build robots and to do what they used
to think was impossible.” Mark McCombs is the visionary of the
FIRST LEGO League competitions going on at middle and high
schools across the state of Florida . This creates dynamic
opportunities for team building in youth, teens and young adults.

Engineering, building and coding of robotics that are involved
in competitions and can be applied to real world or off world
future exploration. Women are playing key roles in these areas,
looking at the recent Hidden Figures movie that careers in NASA
and other aerospace, inner space, space travel and applied careers
are the keys for generational success academically and culturally.

STEM, STEAM and STREAM are not just acronyms to decipher
they are Real, Relevant and Ready to help youth, teens and young
adults reach their dreams and beyond. Parents check your child’s
school to see if they have a STEM or STEAM curriculum that builds
your child to reach beyond their potential and abilities. Never put
limits on the learning of your children or you will limit their
abilities to take care of themselves and their children.
Generations depend on the advancements of the children now.
If your children do not know how to aim, how will they aim
high for success?Resources:Jacksonville Public Library:http://jaxpubliclibrary.org/

-------------------------
The Morgan Report
Education, Technology
and Social MediaClick Here
Interview on The Morgan Report
----------------Life Full Circle
Hosted by Miguel Lloyd
with Guest William Jackson